Taking office straight away, casually and in a less festive atmosphere to which the people are now accustomed. Because there are emergencies and everything is emergency in Senegal. As soon as he takes office, the word break sounds like hallali. The sign Of a new era of governance marked by virtue and sobriety. Guarantees of stability and security. Indeed this country, Senegal, whose health is very fragile, needs calm as does President Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye. Without the genius of its people, Senegal was going straight into the wall and would fall into the abyss of demons who have for a long time sowed disorder in this Africa, subscribed to civil wars, to assassinations of civilians and politicians, to brutal attacks. ‘State et tutti quanti. Indeed, the Senegalese know how to choose and they chose the Diomaye-Sonko tandem; two sisters, Aguène and Diambogne, a Serer and a Jola, forever linked by the history of a nation. This is how the Senegalese people are mixed as a whole and in their essence.
The break, the appointments to the positions of ministers and directors general
Senegal has come a long way in the light of an election that could rock the country, but no. Simply because these people are used to voting and the administration is a well-honed machine for any electoral process. Breakup recorded, room for appointments of ministers and key positions in the administration. No need to speak, you just have to look to understand that the rupture is being consummated quietly and surely by the government and by the population. During handovers, sobriety has given way to the bamboola of yesteryear. President Faye, in his addresses to the nation and in the various ministerial councils, rehashes the words; sobriety, availability, probity, skills and exemplarity. A fighting government and not bad infantrymen. Because everything is urgent in this beautiful, special little country. Faced with those who criticize the government in place, it is good practice to tell them and repeat to them that knowing how to govern means governing with those who have carried out the fight, even if openness is learnedly advocated. Because a nation needs all its daughters and all its sons.
Public administration
As soon as he was inaugurated, President BDDF, as a good section of the population calls him, addressed a letter to all civil servants and civil servants, asking them to be actors in the transformation of their professional environments by making them healthier and more transparent in all public policies. A beautiful and skillfully written letter to be saluted because it is committed and patriotic. It is up to civil servants and state agents to apply it on the ground even if the abstract sometimes has some problems in adhering to the reality on the ground. The Senegalese administration and corruption, an old story.
The land bomb
Feeling the country undermined at all levels and resembling an old wasteland, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye took care to make an unannounced visit to an area where land is a time bomb, Mbour4, an extension of the Thiès region . On site, the images speak for themselves. A land raid by the former barons of the late President Macky Sall’s regime. In fairly contained indignation, the president vented his anger. Healthy anger at the land predators of the former government and he repeats that this will not go unpunished. The days ahead may be tumultuous for some who have lost sleep over the last few days.
Of a justice of Coumba am nday ak Coumba amoul nday to more equitable justice
To speak of justice is to speak of appointments resembling axes. Indeed, you have to know how to sanction coldly in order to move forward, otherwise the same practices are repeated. The Danaides barrel is a striking example. Modernizing justice means removing all stains from it and moving it away from political circles because Senegalese justice has always been subservient to the power in place. Hence the resilience of the people who always have a good back. To promote good governance and accountability, the president is banking on more equitable or even more just justice. Knowing how to sanction is a social demand. Let every thief of public funds pay the price for his crime. A society must know how to sanction and also forgive or disappear. Impunity is a crime against the people and the president knows it.
Our friends, the whistleblowers
Indeed, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye is opening a new era with the protection of whistleblowers in this country which is described as a misunderstanding where everything is a melting pot. It is not to encourage denunciation but to make the management of public funds and public policies transparent. For him, taxpayer money is sacred and no one has the right to appropriate it alone. For those who know Senegalese, the words transparency and good governance are not part of their vocabulary. Hence the urgent and absolute need to educate and re-educate the masses.
The drop in the cost of living, the improvement of the household basket and youth employment
In a country where everything seems doomed to failure and young people are tempted by illegal emigration, President Diomaye Faye and his Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko want to focus on reducing the cost of living, increasing the purchasing power of the Senegalese and the employment of young people sensitive to the sirens of emigration. A good process of all these useful reforms will ultimately involve the dissolution of the National Assembly by the end of 2024 and the organization of new elections. And look forward to the legislative elections with a majority of the presidential camp in the National Assembly. And the country will be better off for it.
Africa, one of the project’s priorities
In the project, we feel and know that the African continent remains a priority for the executive. A few days after his inauguration, President Faye simultaneously visited Mauritania, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. A question of geopolitics. First the African neighbors and then the foreign guests. A sovereign and prosperous Senegal in a progressing Africa. This passes comment and the people applaud to break the footbridge.
Youth and agriculture
Before any form of industrialization, Senegal should have its food sovereignty because it has relied too much on imports which bring us little or no income. This country, to develop, must not be a country of services. We are not like France, which can boast of its service missions. We must appeal to this youth and encourage them to invade fields and villages by creating farmers’ cooperatives. Looking forward to the patriotic holidays where Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko will have to play an eminent role, pilgrim staff in hand. Indeed, this year, the distribution of seeds is supervised or even under close surveillance by the police and we finally understand how in four years, from 2019 to 2023, more than 300 billion CFA devoted to agriculture have been squandered or even stolen.
Renegotiate mining contracts
Field of ruins and nebula surround the contracts signed between the State of Senegal and a few oil and gas multinationals. This Jarnac coup by Macky Sall marks the seal of high treason because renegotiating said contracts would delay the exploitation of these deposits dear to the development of Senegal and would further suffer our economy already on the ground.
France and the Senegalese executive
The history of Senegal and France is punctuated by love and hatred but will always remain against a backdrop of I love you neither. But these are two countries that will always end up understanding each other and that the colonizer’s excess word is no more and that woe to the vanquished does not exist in this 21st century. In any case, the break with the practices of the old regime is complete. For the moment, Emmanuel Macron is waiting, as if in the fever of a Saturday evening, for President Diomaye Faye to set foot on the floor of the Élysée. But this president, very different from his predecessors, prefers the dry air of his neighbors to that of France even if the latter is our main trading partner and is well anchored here.
The Diomaye duo me/is Sonko traces his path and is far from the sneaky clamor and the barking dogs. We wish them, we wish us, Senegalese, to succeed in the project and that Senegal emerges grown, sovereign and prosperous in a progressing Africa. May these first thirty days be the fruit of these next five years and beyond. I cannot end without saying thank you to two elders, Kaccor bi, this beautiful scholarly pen still in activity and to Pape M. Touré, former international civil servant, enjoying his good old days under the shade of the coconut trees, in the sweetness of the niayes.
